The Survivor
by TennisQueen12
Summary: Voe knew him as Ben. Although she was one of the few survivors of the destruction of Master Luke's temple, she abandoned her training and turned her back on the Force soon after. For the last 12 years, she has been living a quiet life in the outskirts of the galaxy...until now. What caused her to flee? And what could possibly bring her back?


**A/N: Hello all! For whatever reason, after about 7 years, I have felt inspired to write more Fanfiction. None of the characters are mine; they all belong to Disney and Lucasfilms.**

Silence.

Pure. Unadulterated.

Silence.

The white room shone brightly, but its brightness was dim in comparison to the sheet of silence that hung over the both of us.

It had been nearly 12 years since I had seen him and the corner of the galaxy into which I had been tucked away felt like it was lightyears away from where my boots currently stood. A dark hood covered my head.

He cleared his throat under the mask and before he spoke I cut him off.

"Don't speak to me under that," I said softly. It probably sounded meek, like someone begging and truth be told, it was. I didn't want to converse with Kylo Ren. I didn't know Kylo Ren.

He inhaled sharply before continuing," You're still mad, I presume?"

I said nothing. There were no words to respond to what he had just said. Mad didn't even begin to describe the feelings pulsing through me. Over the last 12 years, I had numbed away nearly every feeling involving him to protect myself.

"The time for anger has long passed," I said, softer this time. "Why am I here, Ben?"

"Ben is dead," His voice confident, but something about his presence suggested otherwise.

I raised a brow," Dead? If Ben is dead, then I am useless to you. I had no involvement in politics, no allegiance to the Resistance or First Order and I now live a quiet life that I would much like to return to."

I started to step toward the door and immediately felt resistance. It was the first time in years I had felt that presence and it was electrifying. There was something incredibly seductive about feeling that power once more. But there was a reason I had walked away from it and just as quickly as my interest was peaked, I numbed the temptation with reason and inhaled sharply. The Force was dead to me. Along with Ben, apparently.

"Still running from the Force, I see? But not entirely, I sense there is a part of you that is still holding on to your training," His voice calm, but oh so sure.

I tried to distract this conversation from getting too personal. I couldn't afford to have this conversation solely be about me.

"Han and Leia reach out to me almost every single year looking-"

"We can distract each other endlessly, but I want to know where she is," He barked, striding toward me.

She.

With his utterance of that phrase, the galaxy stood still. The sound of my heart beating was the only noise I heard and the only relevant feeling in my body.

He knew.

Damn.

My stomach dropped and I knew that if he knew of her existence, then...I couldn't even fully process it. Anything passing through my thoughts, would only give him the knowledge he desired, if he truly wanted to access my mind then I knew he could. So, I shifted my thoughts to the parts of my brain that I had closed off for so many years. It was the only way I knew to protect her. The last 12 years of my life had been dedicated to protecting her and I wasn't going to drop that now.

So, in my head, I relived walking, running, and laughing with the teenage Ben Solo that had been my friend and confidante.

A part of me glowed with gladness. But there was a very tangible intruder climbing into my thoughts. He was gentle at first, but still very much unwelcome.

And a part of me burned with rage for the dark figure that stood before me now was the absolute mutation of the happy memory I was now reliving.

"Stop," He interrupted. Displeased with the representation I was presenting especially for him.

I imagined the Ben that I saw many times sitting in the Jedi Temple, meditating when appropriate and telling jokes when...mostly appropriate. He was the most skilled one in the class and it was so damn effortless for him. The charm that he had.

Obviously, in reliving these memories, I was trying to speak to the Ben Solo that I knew was still alive behind that dark fascade.

Desperately clinging to any truth that was in that narrative. Was there any truth? Had I ever really known him? Or did I just imagine it?

He took several more steps toward me; I kept my gaze on the ground as I remembered watching Ben excel at all of our Jedi trainings. Before I could remember the next memory, his right hand grabbed my jaw and forced me to gaze into his eyes. Or rather, the front of the mask.

"You have betrayed your calling, Voe," He growled, holding my jaw tight.

"Don't put that on me," I said, putting my hand over his, trying to get him to release his grip. "I know who I am and what I am supposed to do."

"Only a fool would walk away from such power."

I had heard stories on my planet of the menacing Kylo Ren. The one who, at the snap of a finger, could have a planet destroyed. The one, who, without a shadow of a doubt had the same blood as Darth Vader pulsing through his veins.

His grip tightened and I strained my neck.

I swallowed hard before choking out," Again, I ask, why am I here, B-"

"DO NOT CALL ME THAT!" He screamed tightening his grip again to lift my feet off the ground.

I prepared to be thrown. I could feel the momentum and suddenly the memories from my childhood of a man screaming to have his voice heard came rushing back. I had been thrown into walls before; this was not new to me. I had been on the receiving end of a man's tantrum before. Hell, I had been on the receiving end of one of Ben's tantrums before. At least being tossed around could make me feel something other than the bitter resentment I held toward the loss of my friend.

For whatever reason, he hesitated.

He regained total composure and said,"I will take whatever information you have regarding the girl and regarding the mission you have been secretly conducting in the corners of the galaxy. Your life in the shadows, rejecting the Force has come to an end, Voe. You can find the true meaning in how to use the Force to serve you well."

His grip on my neck softened.

The reality that I would never see my village again shot through me. I closed my eyes and looked away from him," I told you years ago that I wanted nothing to do with this. I have no allegiance to anyone but my solitude and am of no use to you."

Silence covered us once again. He allowed my feet to come back down to the ground and left his gloved hand on my face. The tension was building and it was only a matter of seconds before he broke into my mind again with more rage than before.

"You're lying," He spat.

"I'm not," I asserted, looking back at him. "I know nothing of a girl or a mission."

Before he could step foot into my mind again, I felt my eyes sting. I had spent years of my life hiding in the background from Kylo Ren and here I stood face to face with him. We were polar opposites in many ways. As Ben, he was the most powerful pupil Master Luke had trained; I was among the weakest. He had pursuited this connection to the Force; I had very much suffocated mine, locked it in the closet, and waited for it to die. And here, as Kylo Ren, he was the manifestation of the darkness that my friend had succumbed to.

"We'll soon find out," He grumbled, before turning on his heel to call for Stormtrooper assistance in bringing me out of his quarters.

One thing was for certain, my life in solitude away from the push and pull of the war was over. For the first time in 12 long years, I would come face to face with the very being that pushed me into isolation.

**A/N: And that's that. Let me know what you think and we'll see what happens next. Thank you so much for reading and for anyone reading this who maybe read any of my other stories from way back when-I have officially retired those stories. I will only be continuing this one. :) **


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